RIP Dennis Ritchie
Oct. 13th, 2011 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damigellaYou gave us C, and contributed to Unix. For all of you non geeks out there, Unix' is where the X in MacOX comes from. The power under the 
hood. C is quite simply the programming language most used in science Departments. Or at least mathematics and computer science - you know, those that know what they're doing. I cannot program in C even really simple stuff (believe me, I've tried) but I do remember studying The C Programming Language with pleasure for months back in 1991.
I tend to think of Unix and its dialects as a source of regret every time I have a bad hand at Scrabble - longing to be able to compose standard unix commands like lpr.
The best free software around is Unix based - it's the GNU software, were GNU is an acronym fro GNU's Not Unix (self-reference is much loved by mathematicians and computer scientists alike - click at your own risk and don't forget to mouse over).
This man changed my life, and the life of everyone I work with and everyone I've studied with. And I just found out he had very beautiful hands.
You will be missed, but we will cherish your gift.
hood. C is quite simply the programming language most used in science Departments. Or at least mathematics and computer science - you know, those that know what they're doing. I cannot program in C even really simple stuff (believe me, I've tried) but I do remember studying The C Programming Language with pleasure for months back in 1991. I tend to think of Unix and its dialects as a source of regret every time I have a bad hand at Scrabble - longing to be able to compose standard unix commands like lpr.
The best free software around is Unix based - it's the GNU software, were GNU is an acronym fro GNU's Not Unix (self-reference is much loved by mathematicians and computer scientists alike - click at your own risk and don't forget to mouse over).This man changed my life, and the life of everyone I work with and everyone I've studied with. And I just found out he had very beautiful hands.
You will be missed, but we will cherish your gift.
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Date: 2011-10-13 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-16 07:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-14 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-16 07:46 am (UTC)Ritchie was "just" someone who played a big part in shaping the world scientists live in. What is amazing to me is how his work is freely available for all of us to use. Free software is actually better protected against viruses than w*nd*ws.